Johannes Piirto

The Finnish pianist and composer Johannes Piirto studied piano under Liisa Pohiola as well as composition and conducting with Tapio Tuomela and Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He attended master classes with András Schiff and Dimitri Bashkirov, among others, and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Professor Stefan Vladar. Johannes Piirto made his orchestral debut at the age of 10 with his own composition Allegro for Piano and Orchestra at the Pori Sinfonietta, followed in 2011 by Virta at the opening gala of the Musiikkitao (Helsinki Music Centre). Several of his orchestral works, commissioned and conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, had successful premieres with the Finish Chamber Orchestra. Johannes Piirto has performed in many prestigious venues and festivals including Bergen Festival, Helsinki Festival, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Gergiev Festival and Turku Festival. As a soloist he played with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Finnish Chamber Orchestra and worked with conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Fabian Gabel, Sakari Oramo, Okko Kamu and Anja Bihlmaier. As a song accompanist and chamber musician, he collaborates with Lilli Paasikivi, Mika Kares, Natalia Gutman and Julian Rachlin. He is also the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Festival at the House of Nobility in Helsinki. Johannes Piirto was, among other things, a laureate of the Uuno Klami Composition Contest for Youth in 2007, the Dorothy MacKenzie Artist Recognition Award 2008 in New York and the International Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki in 2012. He is a member of Klangforum Wien since 2024.
With the Vienna State Ballet he first appeared in 2021/22 as a pianist for Ludwig van Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, which Martin Schläpfer used as the basis for the world premiere of his ballet In Sonne verwandelt. 2024 follows the piano part in Uwe Scholz's Jeunehomme to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major KV 271 Jenamy in the ballet production Les Sylphides, also at the Volksoper Vienna.